In the latest bout of the fight between Zespri and Turners & Growers over the future of the New Zealand kiwifruit industry, Zespri has said it considers the NZ government’s 2025 Productivity Taskforce recommendation to remove kiwifruit regulations as completely unacceptable.

The taskforce was set up by the NZ government to close the 30 per cent gap in earning between New Zealanders and Australians. But Zespri chairman John Loughlin has warned that the recommendation would lead to a significant productivity drop and a reduction in New Zealand’s export earnings.

Loughlin said: “In the last 10 years, the New Zealand kiwifruit industry has doubled in size and value, significantly contributing to the New Zealand economy and delivering wealth to New Zealand kiwifruit growers."

According to Zespri, the single desk exporter for NZ kiwifruit, the fruit earned more than NZ$987 million (£430m) in export revenues during 2009 and is set to be worth NZ$2 billion by 2020, thus playing a significant role in the NZ$10bn earnings target of Horticulture New Zealand by 2020.

Loughlin said: “A change in the industry structure would prevent the realisation of these growth targets and would be a backwards step for the country. New Zealand growers realise the value of our industry structure every single day - growers do not trade in economic theory, they deal in economic reality.

“The success of the New Zealand kiwifruit industry is the envy of other primary producers. Deregulation would promote price competition among New Zealand exporters, which would lead to a drop in export earnings with many orchardists forced to exit the industry - this is not a viable strategy for productivity growth.”

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